Wednesday, September 19, 2012

We celebrated our little Gracie's first birthday in Michigan. My friend Madison bought her the most adorable cake and we just had dinner with a few friends and let this little girl try cake for the very first time.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

I have so many posts I need to make about the cruise we took in August, but this was probably one of my favorite days. This was the day we spent in Victoria visiting Butchart Gardens. It was breathtaking!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

A couple of weeks ago we decided to go to one of Detroit's famous farmers market called the Eastern Markets. It has been around since the late 1800's. I was in heaven looking over all of the open-air-stalls with local fruits, veggies, plants, jellies, and farm fresh eggs and meats. I have been changing my eating habits a bit after reading Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book Eat To Live, and the lifestyle requires you to drastically increase the amount of fresh fruits and veggies you eat each day so we loaded up on tons of delicious produce. We got artichokes, corn, kale, beets, cucumbers, tomatoes, cantaloupe, nectarines, asparagus, grapes and cherries just to name a few. I love watching my kids devour fresh artichokes for dinner, or snacking on cucumbers and carrots. It is also a lot cheaper to eat this way. We got bags and bags of produce for a lot less then when I buys all of my snacks at Costco.

A little family shot in front of the market.

The website said that on a given Saturday there are about 40,000 people that come and shop the market

I love the idea of buying local produce!!

Some fun things for the kids to do.

I just love snapping pictures of this girl!

The kids loved all of the free samples :)

I just loved that this local baker was rockin' the hat and everything.

At the end of the market we listened to this local artist for a while. He was GOOD! He reminded me of Ben Harper..

We needed some bread so we thought we would check out a local bakery. They had huge thick loaves of homemade bread for 1.75 a loaf.

Of course, there were a few other things besides bread that caught our interest.

We let the kids each pick out a treat.

This is me showing that I can be strong and resist a chocolate eclair that was calling my name!

One of the farmers gave me a green tomato to try. I have always been curious about what a fried green tomato tastes like after seeing the movie

They were pretty darn good I have so say. Although, isn't anything good fried?!?

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

This summer I have found so much beauty in the ordinary. A great example is a day I had last week that was nothing short of perfection in my mind, even though there wasn't really anything overly special about it. There was nothing on the calendar that particular day. No play-dates, no library visit, no parks, shopping or trip to the zoo. In fact Jordan had to take our only car to work so we didn't even have a mode of transportation. It was just a regular stay-at-home day with nothing planned. We passed the morning getting things tidied up and then I announced that we should get ready and head over to the community pool. I smiled at my kids as they ran around the house like lunatics gathering up their swimming suits and towels excited about the prospect of spending a day swimming. My kids love to swim, especially Skyler who is learning how this summer and can't get enough of my endless words of delight as he swims out to me just a little bit further each time.

As we entered the pool we saw that we would have the pool to ourselves, which means no life guards to tell them NO JUMPING in the pool. Plus, Thais is pretty tickled with herself that she can do a pretty mean swan dive... but diving isn't allowed either (except when you are alone). The kids found some pool toys that had been left behind and we spent two blissful hours playing and laughing and beating Michigan's sticky summer heat. When Gracie started showing signs of needing a nap we gathered up our things with no complaints or whining about having to and make the three minute walk to our apartment. We each put our flip flops on and while walking home we soon noticed that we all made a Quack Quack sound from our wet feet rubbing against our rubbery flip flops. Thaisy started to laugh and said, "we sound like ducks mom!" I laughed and called them my cute little duckies as we walked single file, flip flops squeaking, along the side of the road. It sounds so simple but my heart just kind of yearned to freeze time and keep those little duckies forever by my side.

Lunch, naps and reading time with Thais went smoothly without a hitch. Thaisy's reading is going so well and I love the accomplished look in her face when she figures out new words. She is learning for herself that she is smart, and capable and can work through hard things. Then, an hour before Jordan got home I text him to meet us back over at the pool when he got off work. To our delight he got off early and we spent another couple of hours playing in the pool as a family. At one point while watching my family, I had Gracie in my arms and she was doing what I call her "monkey hold" where she lays her head on my shoulder and has her arms wrapped tight around me. I seriously can't think of anything better than having your baby snuggle you. Tears just sort of spontaneously sprang to my eyes and I had this moment of pure gratitude for the sweet simplicity of that moment.

It's not all perfect, but I am really feeling the need to slow down each day and simply breathe and take in the good that is all around me. Jordan and I truly feel that this stage in our young family will always be a sacred revered time in our lives. Below are just a few of the day to day things I don't want to forget. Just some tiny things that made my heart swell because I was relishing that moment in my day:

Feeding my kids asparagus for dinner because Daddy was working late and mommy is on a diet.

Taking the kids to the Detroit temple and letting them touch the temple.

Watching Thais cuddle with her little sister

Thais and Skyler becoming best friends this summer (even though that includes lots of teasing and fighting). They only have each other out here so every waking minute is spent together and I love that. To say that Skyler adores his sister is an understatement. She is the epitome of cool in his mind. In fact, he has even told her that he doesn't like a little "crush" of Thaisy's because that means she will want to marry him and Skyler wants to be the one to marry Thais. Someday he will hate that story, but I love that he just wants his sister in his life forever!